I Was Attacked!!!

 

Today I took my fancy-dancy Viking Platinum 775 sewing machine into the shop/quilt store to get serviced.  As I was trying to leave the store I was ASSAULTED!  

By FABRIC!  

These two pieces of fabric decided that they needed to make a fast get-away and JUMPED into my arms!



Seriously!  It's not that I really "need" anymore fabric, but what could I say???  They were BEGGING me to take them home with me.

Actually, I really do need more pastel yellow.  It's hard to find a pastel yellow right now that isn't a 1930's repro.  Yellows are on the bright side right now, so when I saw this yellow on the 50% off shelf, I knew I had to get it.  I don't care about the border along the edges....I really just want the yellow part...but I figure maybe I can find a use for the border strips somewhere.  :O

As for the light blue plaid...plaids are hard to find in a good quality quilting weight.  There was only 5/8's of a yard, so I got it, too, from the 50% off shelf.  I figure I'll add it to my men's shirts that I've collected to "debone" and use the fabric make a quilt out of, ala Bonnie Hunter!  :)  

This past week, I've made 4 more 12" pastel blocks...

Although I've quilted 2 Dresden plate quilts, they both have been made by someone else and I was just doing the quilting.  This is the first Dresden plate block I've made (lower right-hand block).  It was fun and pretty easy!  I decided to take artistic license and, instead of using a plain color fabric for the center circle, I used the pretty green and pink floral.  It looks better in person than it does in the picture.


In the process of making these blocks, I finished 3 more Maverick Star blocks as my leaders/enders.

Since my Viking is now at the sewing machine spa getting a mani/pedi, I decided to pull out "Beyonce" to have available to do any sewing I might want to do.  

It's been a while since I've had her out for a workout, and you really need to run these old machines every so often to keep them in good working order.  Otherwise, they dry out and freeze up.

Why do I call her "Beyounce"???  


Because she is a light brown Singer!  :):):)

Okay...time to go out and do more cleaning up and burning on the new property!  Have a great weekend!

Loretta

Overview of a Great Weekend...

Quote for the Day:

"Fun is good."

Dr. Seuss 

Wow!  What a mixture of events this weekend held!  

I started out Friday and Saturday by working on some quilt blocks.  First, I made about 30 scrappy log cabin blocks to add to my collection...trying to use up some of the 1.5" strips from the box that exploded.  Here's just a sample of what I made...

I now have a total of 93--6.5" scrappy log cabin blocks.  I don't know what size quilt I'll make with them, but I tend to do queen-sized bed quilts.  So a quilt that size will take approx. 200-225 of this size block.  

Now I can get the lid on the 1.5" strip box!  LOL

Much neater now!  :)

I also made 5 blocks to add to the Craftsy BOM quilt that I'm making in pastels.  These blocks are 12.5" unfinished.  I think I figured out one time that I will need 39 blocks to finish this quilt, so I now have 18 of them done.  :(  I need to working on more of them to get this finished up.

In the process of all of this piecing, I finished 5 of my Maverick Star blocks that I am doing as a "leader/ender" project.  The points and centers of all of these Maverick Star blocks are made from leftover pieces of fabric that I have cut off of other blocks I've made...what many people would just throw in the trash.  But, oh...not me!  LOL

On Saturday, our area had a "Tire Amnesty Day" where you could bring in old tires to be discarded for free.  There was a 10 tire limit unless you got special permission.  I had called, told them the circumstances, and that we had found 28 tires dumped on the property...and got permission to bring them all in.  So Andy loaded them up and took them in.  The pile of tires is now G-O-N-E!!!

Since we are currently in "Fire Season" here in West Virginia, you can't have any fires until after 5 PM.  So Saturday evening at 5 PM SHARP, we went out and started burning brush and construction debris again!  

Our neighbor who lives on the other side of our new property has come out and helped us both Saturdays now that we've been burning.  She is very nice, probably in her late 60's, and boy, can she work!  With 3 of us feeding the fire, it doesn't take long to get the piles cleaned up!  So far, we've burned or gotten rid of between 1/3-1/2 of the crap that was discarded on the property!!  I really need to get out and take new pictures to show how great it is looking now!

Andy doesn't even seem to mind that it is increasing his work by increasing the area he has to mow!  :)

Sunday was Mother's Day here in the US.  Happy Belated Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there reading this!  

We had some friends over for dinner.  Since I didn't take pictures of the dishes we served (bad blogger that I am...actually, we were all so hungry that we couldn't stop ourselves from digging right in!  LOL), so I'm going to give you the links to where I got the recipes.  They were DELISH and I highly recommend that you try them!!

The main dish was "The World's Best Chicken"...and I can vouch for that title!  I've made it three times now, it is that good!  :)   To go with the chicken, I thought I'd try a recipe that I saw on Facebook.  Now...we all know that that can be risky.  Somethings just don't turn out the way that they look/sound online, but this one turned out SUPER GREAT!  You MUST go try it!  It is called "Roasted Red Potatoes".  I can't find the link so I'll just give you the recipe.  :)

It calls for 10-12 baby red potatoes.  I had about 6-7 large russets, so I used those instead, peeled and slice thin.   Spray a baking dish and spread the potatoes out in the dish.  Sprinkle with one package of powdered ranch dressing mix.  Sprinkle with 6 slices of bacon, crumbled.  (I used one package of real bacon bits.)   Dot with about 5-6 pats of butter.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 400 for about 45 minutes.  Serve with a dollop of sour cream!   OMG!!!  Heavenly!

Okay...so that's the recap of what's been going on around this ol' homestead, lately.  I hope all is well in your part of the world, too.  :)

Loretta

Too Many Scraps!!!

 

When I finish a quilt, I always TRY to clean up any leftover fabric and batting from that quilt.  I go through and cut down the fabric scraps into strips of various sizes and store them according to size in my strip drawers.

I also save any larger, useable pieces of batting and then when I get enough, I sew them together.  Eventually, I have a piece big enough to use in a quilt.

I use my walking foot and a meandering, curvy zigzag stitch to join the batting pieces together using a 1.3 stitch length and a 6.0 stitch width...

This piece is about 50" X 50" at this point and I can either use it for a lap quilt or baby quilt, or continue to add to it till it is big enough for a larger quilt.

So Saturday, while Kathy's quilt was in the washer and dryer, I went to work cutting up the fabric into strips, and salvaging what pieces of batting I could.

However, when I went to put the 1.5" strips into their box, I dropped the box and it exploded onto the floor...fabric strips going every which way.  :(

The box was so full that I decided that I needed to use up some so that I could even get the lid back on the plastic shoe box that they are stored in.

I decided to pull out the "go to" project that I work on when I need to use up 1.5" strips...my Log Cabin blocks.

I ended up making about 25 blocks in all, but it hasn't seemed to even make a dent in the strip pile.  :(   I'll probably make some more and then just refold the rest of the strips and try to get them stuffed down in the box enough so I can get the lid back on it.


As a follow-up to my last post, I wanted to show you Kathy's quilt in its natural habitat...her bedroom.

  
She has a queen-sized bed but the quilt is only a twin-size.  So she has it laying over the top of bed as a coverlet.  Doesn't it look great with the other purple bedding?   I'm so happy that she loves it!  I wish her many, many years of sleeping under it and enjoying the love that her great aunt put into it.

Loretta

Lost Quilt Alert...

Every time I mail out a quilt I hold my breath until I hear that it has arrived at its destination.
From time to time we quilters hear about a quilt that never arrives where it is supposed to.  :(

Please read this blog post.  The more people we have reading about this quilt, the more likely it is to be returned to its rightful owner.

Missing Quilt Blog Post

Thank you!  And let's hope that you never have to hear about one of my quilts not arriving where it should.

Loretta

Another Customer Quilt Done!

Quote for the Day:

"Friendship is sewn with love and measured by kindness."

~author unknown

I have a quilt finish to share with you!  YIPPEE!  :)

I was asked by my neighbor (and friend) to hand quilt a top that her great aunt made back in the 1940-50's range.  We aren't exactly sure of the time period because it has both feedsacks and shirting fabric in it.  (There used to be a shirt factory in town and people could go and buy the "ends" or scraps that were left over, so when you find a quilt or quilt top from this area it is not uncommon to find it made with the leftover shirtings from that factory.)

I took Kathy shopping with me to find just the right backing fabric.  Since she loves purple, we picked out a very pretty purple 1930's feedsack reproduction fabric to compliment the age of the top.  I put the quilt into my frame on March 17 and finished up the binding yesterday, May 4!   That's a record for me, but truth be told, it was only a twin size!  :)

Yesterday, I washed the quilt and today I delivered it to her.  The problem, though, is that she wasn't home!  :(  But her husband was, so I left it with him.  He said he would be gone by the time Kathy got home, but he would drape it over the back of the couch so it would surprise her when she got home!  :)

I quilted it in diagonal lines and put a nice cable in the border, but unfortunately, the cable doesn't show up well because of the print.   I used Hobbs Tuscany 100% cotton batting.  It needles like "buttah" and gives such a nice, antique-looking crinkle to the quilt after washing.  :)

The next quilt to go into the frame will be another twin-sized quilt for another customer.  Then I have 3 quilts of my own that need to get done.   :)

Meanwhile, we've been burning brush and debris on our new property every evening, so that is keeping us/me busy!  It is looking sooooooooooo much better!  I'll do a follow-up post on that soon, too!

Loretta

Please Help...

Quote for the Day:

"We can do no great things, only small things with great love.

  ~Mother Teresa

My niece, Kristin, became a step mom 2 years ago to a beautiful girl named Rhy.  She is 16 and has entered into a contest that their local bank is sponsoring for a $1000 room makeover.

Kristin has asked that I post about it and then ask all of my readers to please go and vote for her to win!  

Here is Kristin's blog post where you can read all about it:

http://nallotherstuff.blogspot.com/2013/04/vote-for-rhy-to-win-1000-for-her.html

Kristin's blog post is short and sweet and explains everything.  It even has the link to go to to vote for Rhy.

So what do you say, Folks?  Please go and vote for Rhy!  Let's get this girl a great, new bedroom! :)

Loretta

Where in the World is Loretta???

Quote for the Day:

"My psychiatrist told me I was crazy and I said I want a second opinion. 

He said okay, you're ugly too."
Rodney Dangerfield  

Where have I been and why haven't I been posting lately, you ask?  Well, thanks for asking!  I'll try to share what has been going on in our lives the last couple of weeks.  And I'll try to keep it to the "Reader's Digest Condensed Version".  

Back in November of 2011, we bid on and won the property next to ours at a tax lien sale.  There was a contractor in town that bid against us and lost.  He was bitter about it and started dumping construction debris and trash on the property.  With a tax lien sale in our state, you can't touch the property for 18 months, thus giving the owners a chance to redeem it.   So for 18 months, we got to sit by and watch as this contractor systematically destroyed this property.   We couldn't get the code city code enforcement officers to do anything about it, because they are friends with the contractor.  :(

April 1, 2013, the property legally became ours and the contractor began pulling his equipment off of the property that he had parked there, and also he began removing any useable construction supplies.  He left all the trash, of course.  

We were advised by our lawyer to still not do anything until we actually had the deeds in our hands.  The deeds arrived in the mail on April 13!!

At that point, we put up "No Trespassing" signs and started making plans for cleaning up the property and making our plans for the use of it.

Here are some pictures that were taken on the 13th of the "presents" the contractor left for us...

 (This pile is completely cleaned up now and all but the tires are gone off the property now.)

(Fire wood that will be sold off in the fall.)

 (The cement slab in this picture is now completely cleared off.)

The first day, we picked up 4 plastic outside chairs, a small table, and a rubbermaid stepstool.  I put them out by the curb and by evening, someone had stopped and asked if they could have them.  We answered with a resounding YES!!!  We also found 5 plastic gas cans filled with what?  We don't know.  Possibly used oil.  Someone took those off our hands yesterday.  That same person, also took a pile of HUMONGOUS tree trunks and is planning on using it for firewood this winter.   We have stacked up the discarded tires and have a total of 28.  There is a "Tire Amnesty Day" coming up May 11, so we will be getting rid of those then.  There is a huge stack of firewood that we will be able to sell this fall as many people around here have wood burners.   We are also making a pile of all scrap metal we find on the property and know someone who will haul it off to be recycled.

As we go through the piles of construction debris, we are setting aside "reclaimed lumber" that is still useable and offering it for free on Craigslist and Freecycle.  

The stack of plywood was picked up last weekend and the stack of barn wood will be picked up today!  :)

The rest of the non-useable wood is getting burned...by us...slowly, but surely...

We started burning Thursday evening and burned for about 3 hours.  Then again for about 5 hours on Friday evening.  We only had one burn barrel, but Andy went and got 3 more yesterday, so now we can have 4 going at one time!  :)

Andy trying to read by the light of the fire!  :)

 

I'm finding the burning very cathartic after all we have been through the last 18 months with this contractor....the threats and intimidation he has spewed our way was very stressful.  And watching him systematically destroy this property while we couldn't do anything about it.  Well...let's just say that I'm considering the burning an "exorcism" of sorts and enjoying every minute of it.  For now.  I may not think that in a few weeks....or months... 

Our nerves are frayed, but we are glad to finally be putting the past 18 months behind us and are looking forward to moving on and improving the property.  We have plans to turn it into a useable and very functional part of our "yard".  :)

Loretta  (who has been renamed "Fire Bug" by Andy!!)